Intro Post

< 1997 Review | 1998 Review | 1999 Review >

Please enjoy my last Eurovision review of 2023! I will review Eurovision 1999 after the new year. For the rest of this year, I’ll focus on getting other projects done and finding jobs, since I was recently fired from my latest one. Luckily I already paid for my Eurovision trip, including flights, tickets, and a place to stay.

---

Introduction

In many ways, Eurovision 1998 was the end of an era for the contest. It was the last year where countries had to sing in their own languages, the last year with an orchestra, and until 2023, the last contest to take place in the United Kingdom. Fifteen different British cities applied to host the contest, and the winner was the second largest city in the UK: Birmingham. But it was also the start of an era for the contest: it was the first where most results came from televoting and it kickstarted a trend of LGBT visibility. More trivially, it was the first year where the names of countries appeared on screen during the songs.

Five countries were relegated from this contest (Austria, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Denmark, Iceland, Russia) and five returned from 1996 (Belgium, Finland, Israel, Romania, Slovakia). Italy willfully skipped and North Macedonia made their proper debut, after not qualifying in 1996. Israel famously sent Dana International, the first transgender person to ever compete in Eurovision, and she won the contest.

As with the last two years, the female presenter handled the voting while the male presenter had a different job. In 1996 it was watching over the green room, in 1997 it was the interval act, and in 1998 it was commentary. That’s right: this year, Terry Wogan both hosted and commentated on this contest!* I’m glad he got to host before he became bitter about the contest. Even if I could understand every language in Europe, I would still think the only acceptable way to watch the contest was with British commentary, so that’s what I did.

Interestingly, neither of this contest’s hosts are native to the UK: Terry Wogan is Irish and Ulrika Jonsson is Swedish. However, both had been working for years as BBC presenters. The contest featured four other Eurovision hosts as a special guest. Their, or should I say her name is Katie Boyle, whose hair had gone gray but looked sharp and confident as ever. It’s weird to think she outlived Terry Wogan by two years.

* As far as I know, the only other people who did that were Léon Zitrone (1978) and Graham Norton (2023).

---

Croatia: Neka mi ne svane

Artist: Danijela Marinović

Language: Serbo-Croatian (Croatian), which Croatia would continue regularly using unlike some countries

Key: D♭ major, E♭ major

Oh yeah, I should describe the postcards too. Each one features scenery of the UK focused on a certain activity, and ends by showing the participant country’s flag made from real-life objects. In this case, the Croatian flag is made from a mosaic of cards, held up by an audience watching a sport that I can’t name while remaining regionally neutral.* I normally like it best when a postcard features the contestants, especially when we see what they like to do—for example, one postcard in 1996 showed Elisabeth Andreassen cooking and playing with her baby daughter—but I like the surprise factor of leading into a flag.

Among the newcomer countries in the 1990’s, two in particular knew how to make a splash at Eurovision: Poland and Croatia. Croatia quickly found a style they’re good at, dramatic female singers, and they explored many different ideas with this style. Except of course for their little hiccup in 1997. I think Slavic languages suit these kinds of orchestral ballads well because they’re heavy in consonant clusters, so the singer utters a higher density of phonemes than she would if this was in, say, Italian or Japanese. Though from what I’ve noticed, the languages of former Yugoslavia aren’t as heavy in clusters as the rest.

No matter which language you speak, it’s easy to tell from Danijela’s performance that the lyrics are once again about dramatic romance. I think it’s a little too similar to Croatia’s previous entries, but it’s still nice that the performance transcends language barriers—that’s also something Poland knew how to do. Of course, this song is best known for the costume change: she takes off her black cloak to reveal a simple white dress underneath, which was met with huge applause. This kickstarted an era of costume changes in Eurovision, one of which propelled Latvia to victory in 2002.

Considering the increased hype factor by the costume change, I don’t think the key change was necessary. This is an enticing opener to the contest, but I feel it’ll also be a forewarning that we’ll hear lots of ballads.

* The United States is NOT the only country that calls it soccer, you dumbasses. The name “football” is far more logical, but I’m American so it’s hard to internalize it.

Greece: Mia krifí evaisthisía (Μια κρυφή ευαισθησία)

Artist: Dionysia Karoki and Thalassa

Language: Greek

Key: C♯ minor, D minor

I find it hilarious that this song got twelve points from Cyprus, and none from anyone else. I think it’s the juries’ fault that Cyprus and Greece are the most famous bloc voting pair in Eurovision. They implanted in televoters’ heads that Cyprus and Greece HAVE to give twelve points to each other, or else the universe will explode.

This song is a bit unfocused in genre—I feel like I should love the alternations between ballad and rock, but these sections sound average in isolation and don’t blend together that well. And yet the composer must have thought this was the greatest song in the world, because he was a total jackass about this song and demanded changes in the performance last-minute, which almost caused the group to withdraw. As a punishment, he had to watch the contest locked inside his hotel room.

France: Où aller

Artist: Marie Line Marolany

Language: French

Key: C minor

In sharp contrast to the rest of the 1990’s, France scored near the bottom this year with only three points. It’s a disco pop song by a singer of African descent, but unfortunately it’s really not as good as “White and Black Blues” or “Monté la riviè”. The lyrics are far too repetitive, the instrumental overpowers her singing, and overall I don’t get the same intriguing vibe as France’s other entries in the 1990’s. Still, three points was unreasonably harsh. I’m sure some French fans out there loved this song and just thought the televoters had terrible taste.

Spain: ¿Qué voy a hacer sin ti?

Artist: Mikel Herzog

Language: Spanish

Key: C major, D major

This song seals the deal: since it got only 16th place, it proves that Europe doesn’t like power ballads anymore. Or maybe they still do but not as much? Regardless, please tell me the rest of this year won’t be ballad soup.

Switzerland: Lass ihn

Artist: Gunvor Guggisberg

Language: German, for the last time from Switzerland

Key: B minor, C minor

Some fans think this song’s score of zero points was undeserved, but it does absolutely nothing to me so I can see why. The lyrics are supposed to be a sad breakup song, but in terms of composition and performance it’s a nothing song. I get the feeling this contest will be a mix of extremely beloved icons and extremely forgettable drivel.

Slovakia: Modlitba

Artist: Katarína Hasprová

Language: Slovak

Key: A mix of G major, G minor, and E minor

On the other hand, this song did not deserve to score so low. I can’t believe it got 8 points from Croatia and nothing else. Katarina’s singing has a few problems—I don’t like the breathy voice at the start of each verse and she doesn’t hit all the notes of each chorus—but this is very decent otherwise. It’s a dramatic tune in 6/8 time whose title means “prayer” and I feel like it was inspired by other Slavic entries, particularly “Ale jestem” from last year.

After relistening to “Ale jestem”, I realize this song is nowhere near as well composed or well sung, but come on televoters, you can be a little nicer to Slovakia. Maybe they should have brought the Czech Republic aboard because they would have totally given each other twelve points, let’s be real. The only reason the Czechs and Slovaks have never voted for each other is because the only year where both countries participated, they were in different semifinals and neither of them qualified.

I’m guessing that after their low score this year, the Slovak broadcaster decided Eurovision wasn’t worth it and didn’t try again until 2009 to 2012. This is a problem that a lot of Slavic countries face: if they keep scoring low and Eurovision isn’t that popular over there, then why bother paying to attend? Especially now that Russia is banned, some of them can’t afford to compete. I think we have to accept that for the foreseeable future, Eurovision won’t be anywhere close to featuring the whole continent.

Poland: To takie proste

Artist: Sixteen

Language: Polish

Key: E♭ major, F major

My review of “Ale jestem” last post probably seemed more critical than I intended. This song, as well as most entries this year so far, made me realize it was one of the best entries in 1990’s Eurovision, and I took the atmospheric orchestral style from 1996 and 1997 for granted.

This year, Poland quit sending exotic orchestral songs and decided it’d be better to send a regular 90’s pop song. A year too early for that, don’t you think? It’s a pretty decent song but I’m sure they would have sung it in English if they could. Unfortunately, the English version (When Love Turns to Hate) is heavily accented.

Israel: Diva (דיווה) (the winner)

Artist: Dana International (Sharon Cohen)

Language: Hebrew

Key: E minor

You already know what this song is best known for. Dana International is both the first transgender contestant in Eurovision and the first transgender person to win the contest. However, Dana International was not the first transgender person involved in Eurovision. Believe it or not, the British entries in 1962 and 1963 were orchestrated (and in 1962, conducted) by a pre-transition Angela Morley.

I think Dana being transgender played a part in this song’s victory, which was quite narrow: Dana won by only six points. The results of the televote reflect which contestants have the most people supporting them, never which ones have the most haters. However, even if Dana wasn’t publicly trans, it would have probably scored highly. That’s because in a year overloaded with ballads upon ballads, an upbeat Eurodance song is sure to stand out. I’m still not a big fan of Eurodance as a genre, but this song has a really good and singable melody especially in the chorus, and Dana and her backing singers sell it well.

I don’t like judging Eurovision entries by the singer’s ethnicity, sexuality, gender identity; I prefer judging them by how good they are as songs. Despite this, Dana International’s victory tells us a lot about the spirit of Eurovision. Dana had a lot of bigoted haters who wanted to disqualify her or send death threats, so much that she had armed guards follow her and stayed in a hotel with bulletproof windows, but the supportive fans outshined the haters and triumphed in the end. With all this in mind, if you don’t like “Diva” as a song and think something else deserved to win, that is perfectly fine. I like the song and don’t love it, but I thoroughly respect its victory.

Germany: Guildo hat euch lieb!

Artist: Guildo Horn (Horst Heinz Köhler), a satirical schlager singer

Language: German

Key: D major, E♭ major

We’ve finally reached the last Eurovision song from Germany to be sung completely in German. You already know that I absolutely hate that they abandoned the language entirely after 2007. To me, it seems like common sense that in an international song contest, Germany should sing in German, or at least about half the time. I know some Germans have an aversion to music in their own language and a lot of German musicians do sing in English, but singing entirely in English 16 years in a row is insulting to people passionate about the German language, like me.

With all that said, if this had to be the last German entry purely in German, then I’m glad it was this masterpiece. This song revived Germany’s interest in Eurovision after many years of boredom with the contest. But to understand how it accomplished this, we have to recap their Eurovision history.

Despite being among the seven participants in Eurovision 1956, Germany didn’t seem to care much about it in the first two decades. Their songs usually weren’t that interesting and sometimes the singers weren’t even from Germany. An exception is their three third places in 1970 to 1972, two of which were from Katja Ebstein. That was the first time Germany reached the top three, which took longer than all other 1956 participants except Belgium.

Enter Ralph Siegel, who composed the German entry in 1976 which didn’t score well. He tried again in 1979 with “Dschinghis Khan” and reached the top five, then composed “Theater” (1980) and “Johnny Blue” (1981), both runner-ups, and won with “Ein bisschen Frieden” in 1982. All four of these are excellent songs with strong performances, so it seemed only natural that Ralph Siegel should keep composing for Eurovision, right?

Unfortunately, after “Ein bisschen Frieden”, Germany got carried away with replicating it and decided they should only send inspirational ballads, especially ones about peace. From 1983 to 1993, you can see from my reviews that I was OK with this style at first but increasingly got fed up with it. Some of the dullest German ballads from that era were composed by Siegel himself, although he broke the ballad streak with an upbeat song in 1994. Sandwiched between two more ballads, their techno song from 1996 should have revived Germany’s interest in Eurovision, but it mysteriously didn’t clear the final.

Germany almost didn’t get to participate in Eurovision 1998, but they got their chance when Italy withdrew. Out of the ten songs in their national final, three of them were Ralph Siegel songs, but none of them stood the slightest chance against a flamboyantly goofy schlager parody composed by a certain “Alf Igel”. This song earned 62% of the televotes, and think about it. That was against nine other songs! Alf Igel was in fact a German TV host and comedian named Stefan Raab, who overtook Ralph Siegel as the hero of German Eurovision. Although the orchestra didn’t play anything, he was shown as the conductor because he insisted on doing a conductor’s bow.

Many people think that Germans are extremely deadpan and don’t like making jokes, but if you know how excited German fans were when Guildo Horn was selected, you’ll find that’s not at all true. Another stereotype is that Germans aren’t at all patriotic, and I think that’s half true. They keep their patriotism bottled up under most circumstances, then exuberantly release it when their country participates in an international competition. This is shown by the enormous German flags in the audience, held together by multiple cheerful viewers. We’ve seen a few German flags in the audience before, but never anything this big!

Guildo Horn’s performance is so absolutely peak Eurovision. Germany hadn’t sent anything this Eurovisiony since Dschinghis Khan! While wearing an enormous turquoise coat, then a flashy teal suit beneath, then a saggy colorful business shirt underneath, Guildo Horn sings his heart out about how much he loves all of you and wants to return to the old days when people took romance seriously. He won the Barbara Dex Award this year, which I suppose is fair, but it’s not as fun when an intentionally ridiculous costume gets the award.

I love how this song starts as a sappy romantic ballad, in which Guildo sings the song’s title (Guildo loves you all) and the rest of the chorus in his deep, gruff voice, then turns into upbeat schlager rock for the whole rest of the song. He frolics around the stage with exaggerated gestures, touches the hair of several audience members including Katie Boyle, then climbs up the pole atop the stage near the end and somehow doesn’t kill himself. Oh yeah, he also briefly plays the melody on cowbells which must have taken so much practice.

Though anyone can appreciate Guildo Horn’s crazy performance, the experience is enhanced when you can understand the lyrics. The text is extremely goofy and over-the-top lovey, but also well-written with a good flow and variety of rhymes (lieben and geschrieben, Liebesbeweis and Himbeereis for example). It doesn’t rely on German rhyming cliches like “-ein”. The lyrics are packed with German cultural references, but since this review is so huge already, I’ll name just one. In the passage “und von dort schick ich euch meine Liebesbeweis / Nussecken und Himbeereis” (and from there, I’ll send you the proof of my love / nut corners and raspberry ice cream), “Nussecken” (nut corners) are a German dessert that was massively popularized by this song. Thanks to Guildo Horn, they’re commonly found in German bakeries to this day.

You might call me weird for this, but I genuinely enjoy this as a song. It’s catchy and fun to listen to and has a handful of jazzy chords sprinkled in, especially before each chorus. I have on a few occasions sung it to myself, because as goofy as this song may be, there’s something about it that genuinely makes me cheer. It’s clear throughout Guildo’s performance that the audience felt the same way.

In the end, this song scored seventh place—not bad for a joke entry! It helps that the results are all televote, but many joke entries scored nowhere near as well. In his performance, Guildo Horn knew how to be funny and not just stupid.

Although this song obviously had a big impact on Eurovision history as a whole, I’d like to focus on its role in German Eurovision history. This song was Germany’s redemption arc after their shocking non-qualification in 1996. It boosted German fans’ interest in the contest and made them more eager than ever before to root for their own country. Most importantly, it paved the way for Stefan Raab to continue working on Eurovision. His determination to find the best possible singer to represent Germany is how they won the contest again in 2010.

Unfortunately, the high spirits of German fans have died down over the past decade as the country kept scoring low. Many of them, including me sometimes, feel there’s no hope left for Germany in Eurovision. But this song serves as a reminder that Germany can send fan favorite songs! I can only hope that whatever Germany sends in 2024 will reignite this burnt-out candle. As the native-language “Cha Cha Cha” proves, it would help if it was sung in German.

Wow… I knew my review of this song would be huge, but I didn’t think it would be THIS huge. It’s the first time I’ve written more than a thousand words about a Eurovision song! This goes to show that every Eurovision fan is most invested in the entries of their own country, even if “their country” isn’t actually where they live.

Malta: The One That I Love

Artist: Chiara Siracusa, for the first time out of three

Language: English

Key: E major, F♯ major

Sometimes the jury and televoters’ tastes aren’t that different. This year, the televoters (and three juries) awarded this song third place, exactly as a pure jury year would do. Chiara has a good voice and knows how to sing quietly but without being breathy, but otherwise all the televoters must be seeing something in this song that I don’t.

Hungary: A holnap már nem lesz szomorú

Artist: Charlie (Károly Horváth)

Language: Hungarian, which we won’t hear again until 2005

Key: F major

Aw man, I was hoping Terry Wogan wouldn’t chicken out on pronouncing the title. This is Hungary’s last Eurovision entry until 2005, because the country withdrew after this year. This is the problem with the relegation system: it’s so demotivating to some countries that it makes them not want to come back. It also happened with Russia and Slovakia.

This song scored third last place with only four points, even though it’s a ballad just like the last song. It’s not actually that bad and I like the little bits of organ and harmonica, the latter of which is played directly into the microphone. It also has some nice blues chords mixed in. The televoters’ love for some ballads and distaste for others is just as confusing as that of the juries. There’s no way they can be this biased towards songs in English, right?

Slovenia: Naj bogovi slišijo

Artist: Vili Resnik

Language: Slovenian, which we’ll hear a LOT more than German from here on out

Key: G minor, G♯ minor

Slovenia is a perfect example of a country that likes to showcase their modest little language and proves that any excuses Germany has for not using theirs are bullshit. As with Stefan Raab, Mojmir Sepe stretched the definition of “conductor”. He was originally supposed to conduct the orchestra, but then this song was switched to backing track, so all he did was signal when the track should start. France was the opposite and originally wasn’t going to use an orchestra. I think this is a benefit of abolishing the orchestra next year: too many countries went back and forth on whether they wanted to use it.

The former Yugoslav countries love to send these dramatic ballads with dreary lyrics. This song’s title means “let the gods hear” and the singer wants the gods to know how much he’s in pain without his former love interest. I think these songs are slowly evolving from regular ballads into Balkan ballads, but we aren’t there yet.

Ireland: Is Always Over Now?

Artist: Dawn Martin

Language: English

Key: D major, E♭ major

In the postcard, the transition from a subway map to the Irish flag was really clever! These types of surprise transitions are my favorite type of flag reveal, but it’s easier to do with some flags than others.

Fun fact: This year was almost Ireland’s second time sending a song in Irish. “Seol” by the Vard Sisters lost the national final by only three points. You could argue that if “Seol” won the national final and Malta sang in Maltese, then this could truly be a pure native language year, but the vast majority of Ireland natively speaks English.

Second fun fact: Noel Kelehan first conducted for Ireland in 1966 (the second year they participated) and last conducted for Eurovision in 1998. If I’m not mistaken, he was the longest-running conductor in Eurovision history. I’m going to miss seeing his name when the orchestra is gone. He didn’t conduct for Ireland every year, but from 1980 onwards, the conductor was either him or nobody.

Just to be clear, the title of this song isn’t a grammatical mistake. It’s not a misgrammar* of “is it always over now?” The title can be better read as Is “Always” Over Now? or as Is Eternity Over Now? Not that easy for non-native English speakers to understand, if you ask me. Anyway, this song is basically the intro of “Guildo hat euch lieb!” but as a whole song. I would have expected it to make the top three, but it only earned ninth place which proved Europe was getting tired of ballads.

* Totally a real word, why wouldn’t it be? I coined it by analogy with “misspelling”.

Portugal: Si eu te pudesse abraçar

Artist: Alma Lusa, a short-lived musical group

Language: Portuguese

Key: G major

The coolest way to reveal more complex flags (particularly those with symbols on them) is to have a group of people assemble it out of crafts. That’s what is done with the Portuguese flag here, which is built out of ribbons by schoolchildren.

The lyrics of this song seem designed to be as stereotypically Portuguese as possible. The song discusses that the spirit of Portuguese people lives on no matter where in the world they travel to and talks about sailing the seas and experiencing “saudade” and all that fun stuff. Lyrically, this is a hilariously predictable Portuguese entry, but what about musically?

This song is heavy in mandolin and guitars, common tropes in Portuguese entries, as well as a bagpipe at a few parts. It vaguely tries to match the style of modern European pop, so yep, stereotypical Portuguese entry it is. I’m not sure all those traditional instruments fit that well onto the 90’s pop beat, but it’s nice that Portugal didn’t jump on the ballad bandwagon this year.

Romania: Eu cred

Artist: Mălina Olinescu

Language: Romanian

Key: C major and, after a complex transition, D major

Before we begin: Mălina Olinescu sadly committed suicide in 2011. She was only 37 years old.

Romania had a very rough beginning to their Eurovision history. They got last place in the 1993 and 1996 semifinals and had only participated in Eurovision itself in 1994, where they got just 14 points. I can’t remember what any of their three songs sound like. When Romania tried again in 1998, they only got six points, all of which came from Israeli televoters for some reason. Are there a lot of Romanians in Israel? Did the Israeli commentator hype up this song? Or were there just not many televoters in Israel, and thus the results were odd?

This is a sweet romantic song with lyrics about a woman who believes at heart that her former love interest still cares about her and wants to come back. The instrumental fits this theme well, since it sounds hopeful with just a tinge of melancholy. The dominant seventh chords are an especially good way to sound hopeful. I’m not a fan of when ballads start with a breathy voice, but this is otherwise one of the better ballads of the contest so far. It definitely didn’t deserve to score so low.

United Kingdom: Where Are You?

Artist: Imaani Saleem

Language: English

Key: G minor

“Now the United Kingdom entry, in case you’ve been down a hole in the ground for the last six months, is “Where Are You?” It’s gonna be sung by Imaani from Nottingham.” Terry Wogan said all you need to know about how incredibly hyped up this song was. This is another way Eurovision 1998 ended an era: it was the last time the UK sent a highly anticipated song that many people thought would win, only to come second place, until 2022.

As was so often the case, this was a narrow second place by a margin of six points below the winner, and one point above the third highest. If this was a year with pure jury voting, I suspect this song would have won. Were this a year with mixed jury and televote, I’d be tempted to call it jury bait, but by the time mixed voting began, the contest had become way more competitive.

Imaani gives a strong performance over a fresh and contemporary song. It sounds very British, but in a more modern way than what the UK usually sent back then. The orchestra nicely compliments the disco pop instrumental and adds some extra drama, instead of making it sound muddy. It was also smart not to have any playback instruments on stage, since the rules no longer required them. This puts emphasis onto Imaani and her four backing dancers.

The fact that this and “Diva” battled for the top spot shows what kinds of songs were the rage in Europe near the end of the millennium: danceable pop songs heavy in synths. Israel and the UK making the top two cemented that Eurovision would no longer be about replicating music of the past, but embracing music of the present.

Cyprus: Génesis (Γένεσις)

Artist: Michael Hajiyanni

Language: Greek

Key: B major, C major

Aside from the microphone feedback in the first verse, I don’t have much to say about this song. It tries to be a dramatic Greek-speaking entry but sort of misses the mark. I’m not sure his freeform speaking fits well over the rigid rhythm in the backing.

Netherlands: Hemel en aarde

Artist: Edsilia Rombley, one of the hosts in 2021

Language: Dutch, for the last time until 2010

Key: B minor, C minor

For a country that normally snags opportunities to sing in English, the Netherlands has a strong track record with their own language. This song reached fourth place, their highest placing since their victory in 1975. Since then, it’s only been surpassed by their second place in 2014, and their victory in 2019.

If I had written this post, I’d have said the Dutch language would become rare in Eurovision from here on out, but the Netherlands just confirmed they’d send a song in Dutch to 2024, just like they did in 2022. You already know what I’m going to say: if the Netherlands can embrace their own language now, then so can Germany. I’m excited to see what Joost Klein brings to us in de Nederlandse taal!

Terry Wogan was very excited about this song, to a level that he normally only reached with British and Irish entries. I can see why that is: it’s similar in style to the British entry, so people who like one will usually like the other. I prefer this song just a little bit, because it’s absolutely peak Netherlands. It’s got their characteristic soul sound, a melody that fits their language perfectly, a snazzy chorus that gives me shivers, and a singer full of confidence. What more could you ask for?

I’d like to analyze two parts of this song that I find especially interesting: first, the chorus. The chord progression is based on a common minor key progression, i-III-VI-V (B minor, D major, A major, E major) but does one tiny tweak that changes everything: the first chord is changed to B major. This might not seem like much, but considering the next two chords consist of notes in the B minor scale, as well as the suspended seconds that spice up these chords, it really tickles the listener’s ears.

The second point of interest is the key change, because it’s done in a more interesting way than the usual “repeat the final chorus”. After the second chorus, we get a bridge that gradually strips down more and more of its instrumentation, as the audience claps and Edsilia repeats the title. You might think that’s the end, but then the listener is smacked in the face with a key change. This, people, is the right way to do a key change! Or one of the right ways, at least. You could also do it in the style of “L’oiseau et l’enfant” from 1977, which feels so long ago now.

This will be our last time hearing a Dutch-language song in the grand final, until 2022. It’s really exciting that we’re living through a renaissance of Dutch-language music, both in Eurovision and in the general music scene.

Sweden: Kärleken är

Artist: Jill Johnson

Language: Swedish, for the last time until 2012

Key: E major

As of this writing, this is still Sweden’s last Eurovision song in Swedish. The only other one since then came from Finland, in 2012. A loose rule of thumb is that the further north in Europe you go, the more eager countries were to sing in English if given the opportunity. Sweden is the most extreme case: they’re the last remaining pre-1999 participant that hasn’t sent a native language song post-1999.* Denmark was the second last, but they finally brought back their language in 2021.

Sweden’s last native language song is a ballad paying tribute to Princess Diana. Jill Johnson has an excellent voice, but this still blends together with other ballads to me. I will say it’s amusing that the songwriter initially denied what the song was about, even though the lyrics are blatantly about someone’s death. “An angel passed in heaven, so free, but she left her smile on our earth”.

* I’m counting English as Malta’s language, though they did use a tiny bit of Maltese in 2000.

Belgium: Dis oui

Artist: Mélanie Cohl

Language: French

Key: C major

If I was alive in 1999… wait no, I can’t say that, because I was born that year. If I wasn’t a baby in 1999 and learned that Eurovision was removing the language rule, I probably would have thought Dutch-speaking Belgium would switch to songs in English while French-speaking Belgium wouldn’t. But instead, both Belgian broadcasters have almost entirely sent songs in English. Maybe as I go through 21st century Eurovision, I’ll find out why that is.

This is a very late 90’s or early 2000’s sounding pop song, complete with a swing drum beat and a jumping bassline and repeating string notes. It’s one of those styles that has to be really good to appeal to me. This just sounds kind of cheap and amateurish, and I don’t know why we needed all those instrumentalists on stage. They’re not fooling anyone and they don’t add to the performance. Luckily, Belgium would do this style much better in 2003.

Finland: Aava

Artist: Edea

Language: Finnish, technically, I guess

Key: C major

This song is most famous for its lyrics, which consist of only six different words. It comes off like Finland ran out of ideas for how to make the Finnish language appeal to listeners and predictably, this didn’t work either. It scored 22 points and achieved 15th place. Back then, I don’t think anyone would have guessed a song in Finnish would score second place 25 years later, nor that it would make fans all over the world interested in the language.

I don’t know why Edea decided to give this song such minimalist lyrics. This is a fairly nice atmospheric song that could have had a rich variety of words sung over it. How about instead of “aava maa, aava maa avara”, they could sing something like “aava maa, täi löinen kuursustaa”? Note that these probably aren’t actual Finnish words; I just made up something Finnish-sounding à la Björn Skifs. The good news is, if you’re reading this and can speak Finnish, you probably had a good laugh.

Anyway, this song could have been good but due to the repetitive choice of lyrics, it just sounds dull.

Norway: Alltid sommer

Artist: Lars A. Fredriksen

Language: Norwegian, which we’ll hear again only in 2006

Key: A major

Interestingly, Norway’s national selection (Melodi Grand Prix) allowed songs in English a year before Eurovision itself did. This is a rare case where a song won a national final in English, then was performed in Eurovision in the country’s native language. Normally it’s the other way around. This song was originally written in English and called “All I Ever Wanted (Was You)”. The Norwegian title means “forever summer”, but the lyrics are faithful to the English ones. When the English lyrics say “an open book”, the Norwegian lyrics say “en åpen bok” which sounds almost identical. I love when languages do that.

The only other interesting thing about this song is that Lars got a major haircut before performing for Eurovision. Otherwise, it’s an average late 90’s pop song that sounds exactly like the kind of Norwegian entry that the juries would ignore. This was a televote year and the song got 8th place, so maybe the voters were attracted to Scandinavian men. Terry Wogan thought the same, saying “that boy is going to get a few girly votes”.

Estonia: Mere lapsed

Artist: Koit Toome

Language: Estonian, for the last time until 2009

Key: G major

This is yet another song that starts as a serene piano ballad until a generic ballad drum beat (plus some descending chimes) kicks in. I was fully prepared for the drum beat to appear, so the only question was when. I wonder why this year has so many more ballads than the last two? Were ballads everyone’s way of trying to imitate “Love Shine a Light”? At least this gets a little more energetic in the bridge, but it reverts to an average ballad afterwards.

Turkey: Unutamazsın

Artist: Tarkan Tüzmen

Language: Turkish

Key: G minor

Some people might think this is another average ballad, but I think that’s total injustice. It’s different from other ballads this year because it’s completely classical-sounding. Unlike so many other countries this year, whose songs sounded electronic with at most slight orchestral accompaniment, Turkey made full use of the orchestra and it sounds absolutely beautiful. This is smart because a classical song like this wouldn’t sound as good over a backing track. This song doesn’t contain any synths or drums at all, so it sounds old-timey in a good way.

Ordinarily I’d be surprised that Turkey sent an old-timey song, but I can see why: their third place with “Dinle” must have given them a boost of confidence. Unfortunately, this song didn’t appeal to televoters much and it got 14th place with 25 points.

North Macedonia: Ne zori, zoro (Не зори, зоро)

Artist: Vlado Janevski

Language: Macedonian

Key: D minor

North Macedonia’s proper debut in Eurovision is a slightly moody ballad with guitars. It’s an alright song, but nothing about it really grips me. The country scored 19th place in the final and thus didn’t qualify for 1999, which is a bit harsh. Not because I think the song deserved better, but because it was cruel to North Macedonian fans who waited so long for their country to debut. They never even got to send any Eurovision songs when they were a part of Yugoslavia.

---

Who’s my favorite?

The two strong contenders for my favorite are a familiar pair of countries: Germany and the Netherlands. Germany sent an incredible comedic entry which I genuinely enjoy as a song, but the Netherlands rouses me like almost nothing else in the 1990’s. When Germany and another country are in competition to be my favorite of the year, I try to think: how would I feel if I was from the other country? If I was Dutch instead of Deutsch, I would have chosen Netherlands, Hemel en aarde in a heartbeat.

• Belgium, 1 (1976)
• Denmark, 1 (1963)
• Finland, 3 (1968, 1983, 1989)
• France, 3 (1977, 1990, 1991)
• Germany, 3 (1956, 1979, 1982)
• Iceland, 1 (1992)
• Ireland, 4 (1970, 1980, 1993, 1994)
• Israel, 1 (1987)
• Italy, 1 (1958)
• Luxembourg, 4 (1961, 1965, 1972, 1988)
• Netherlands, 7 (1957, 1959, 1964, 1967, 1969, 1975, 1998)
• Norway, 4 (1960, 1966, 1973, 1995)
• Portugal, 2 (1971, 1984)
• Sweden, 3 (1974, 1985, 1996)
• Switzerland, 1 (1986)
• Turkey, 2 (1978, 1997)
• United Kingdom, 2 (1962, 1981)
• (17 winners)

It’s been quite a while since I last chose the Netherlands as my favorite! I think Terry Wogan was on to something when he said the Netherlands’ song was too good for Eurovision. Honorable mentions go to the UK and Turkey this year.

General thoughts:

Where could you possibly hear Scottish bagpipe music seamlessly transitioning into Indian bhangra, then to Caribbean choir? That’s right, the interval act of Eurovision 1998! These medleys of genres celebrating a country’s musical history are a great type of interval act, but I don’t think anything can beat Riverdance. In terms of postcards and general presentation, this whole contest felt authentically British. Neither of the hosts were native Brits, but you can tell they’ve adopted the country’s sense of humor.

The voting sequence looked modern and retro at the same time. It has that heavily shaded 3D art style that looked futuristic back then, not so much now. Also, I miss Frank Naef so much. The way he would say “merci beaucoup, je suis très heureux ce soir” or “thank you, it was a wonderful show tonight” in a thick accent was such a treasure. All those new scrutineers just aren’t the same.

I can’t get over the fact that they got freaking Nena, the singer of possibly the most famous German song of all time, to present the votes for Germany. This means you can technically say Nena was in Eurovision, but not in the same way as ABBA or Celine Dion. The voting sequence was one of the most exciting in Eurovision history. The UK, Malta, and the Netherlands all came amazingly close to winning, and even Croatia was briefly in the lead! But I feel bad for France, Hungary, and Slovakia for getting almost no points.

This year had a much worse lineup of songs than the past two. I can sum it up as “a bunch of ballads, Dana International, Guildo Horn, and two groovy dance songs”. Seriously, we just had two great years that weren’t ballad soup! And yet, I feel a bittersweet fondness for the last year where every country sang in its own language. There are advantages to abolishing the language rule and some creative songs we couldn’t have had under the rule. Although I wouldn’t say I want the language rule back, if I had a button in front of me that, if pressed, would make every country sing in their own language again… then I would press it. I would then beg Germany to send a good song in German, not just any song in German. OK, fine, I mostly want to press the button because of Germany.

When the winner was announced, the composers for “Diva” quickly arrived on stage but it took awkwardly long for Dana International herself to arrive. That’s because Dana made history as the first Eurovision winner to reprise her song in a different outfit. Her victory represents the kind of songs the audience stood behind near the turn of the millennium and symbolizes both an end and a beginning.

---

You know what else feels like an end and a beginning? The new year. It is after that point when I’ll continue my Eurovision post series. See you next year as I review the first Eurovision year after I was born.

Feel free to check out my bonus post listing my favorite song from each country in 1956 to 1998.

>> 1999: The Death of the Language Rule (and the Birth of Me)